Better than EverCrack?
by Aelexya
Summary: Messing around with putting the first D&D thing I've been in into story format. This never got finished, and it wasn't that great anyway, but whatever.


I was thirsty.  
  
I had about six gold. Enough for dinner and a place to sleep. Maybe. Not like I needed to sleep inside, anyway. So actually paying for something I could steal was entirely out of the question even before I fully thought it out.  
  
It was about mid afternoon. Everything was hot and covered with dust in the middle of summer, even in the mountain town that had grown up around the druid's grove in the center. So people were staying inside, hiding from the heat, sleeping or bathing or whatever. I was just kinda hanging out by the wall of the heavily guarded grove, weighing my choices. On one hand, I could drink out of the public fountain and try to ignore the straw and grass and...stuff...floating around in the muddy water, then hope I didn't get sick from it. Or I could check out the possibility of a pool in the druid's grove.  
  
Supposedly, the druids kept a pure pool of water somewhere in their grounds. And supposedly, there was something magical about it. Only thing I knew for sure was that there was a lot guarding the place.  
  
Rangers, plants, animals, druids, and gods only knew what else. Sounded like something I could accomplish...sneaking around without getting myself killed. Sounded like fun, actually. And if I was killed? Didn't matter, the afterlife would probably be better than what I was going through.  
  
But there was no way I was gonna get killed. I could steal anything. Unless I was drunk, which I wasn't.  
  
I casually walked past one of the gates in the wall. It was made of apparently live, thick, leafy vines. Two druids stood guard, a human and a wood elf. I decided that wasn't exactly the best way in.  
  
Walked about a hundred feet from the gate. The wall had curved, so I couldn't see the druids and was hoping they couldn't see me. I easily climbed the wall and dropped silently to the grass on the other side, landing in a crouch.  
  
The elf half of me kinda liked the place...lots of trees. I wasn't out in the open, so the thief part was comfortable to some extent. Of course, the cursed trees and everything crawling in and around them probably heard and saw every single thing I did. Freaky. But this wasn't the time to start hoping nothing took offense at my existance.  
  
Forcing my fears out of my mind and replacing everything with complete concentration, I listened carefully to the noises I heard. Birds, animals, far-off chanting...I guessed a direction and began walking that way.  
  
The trees I used to hide myself were ancient. I ran my fingers along the rough bark, sensing the life in everything I came to. It was as annoying as it was awesome – my ears were deafened and my eyes blinded by the sounds and vital greenness of everything around me.  
  
Maybe that's why I almost ran face to face into a ranger who was too busy poking at some tracks in the grass to notice me...if I hadn't been instinctively careful, I would've been dead. I caught my breath sharply and silently and slid into the shadows of another tree. The danger of my situation was suddenly very real to me, and I almost panicked – what was I doing creeping around in the shadows of my enemy, an enemy that was everywhere? Shaken, I moved on as quietly as possible.  
  
And in about twenty minutes, I hit water.  
  
It was in the middle of a clearing...of course. More perfect grass, ancient stone pillars, a grotesque statue that may have been shaped like an animal at one point in it's existance. The statue stood guard over the pool, along with an elf who was shorter than my 5'6. She looked like a druid. The water had a calm, glassy surface. It looked so cool compared to the parched city that I seriously considered risking getting myself killed just to feel that water clean the dust from my body. Dark gray river stones lined the bottom. Nice slingshot-sized stones. The pool, strangely, was completely devoid of life.  
  
I glanced around, looking for any shadows I could use to my advantage in sneaking to the water. Luckily, all the rags I wore were stained a sick, faded non-color that blended with pretty much any surroundings I could find myself in. I took a deep breath – the way the sun was positioned in the sky gave me some shadow to work with, but not much. And when I touched that water, I was going to make rings if not splashes. Then there was still the matter of getting out of the place unseen.  
  
Again, fears were replaced by concentration. I dropped to a crouch and crept up to the water's edge, my eyes focused on the weird animal-shape of the statue instead of the druid just under it. Then I was there, and the water was at least twice as cool as it looked...I totally forgot where I was as I drank enough to make myself sick, then rinsed my face as the exhaustion of the day caught up to me.  
  
When the roots burst out of the ground and wrapped themselves around my feet and ankles, I remembered where I was. When more roots wrapped around my wrists, I remembered that the druid that was guarding the pool was probably extremely strong, probably knew what she was doing with her magic. Already, there was no way I could get through the roots binding me – they were way too thick, my muscles were still shaky from the relief of the water.  
  
"Put the stone back!" the druid standing over me growled. By the time it occurred to me that she was talking to me, I had lost my balance and fallen to my side. I stared at her bare feet.  
  
"Put it back!" she yelled. I wondered if she noticed that I couldn't have moved even if I had had any idea what she was talking about. I wasn't dead yet, so the immediate fear I'd felt gave way to deep shame that I had been caught and was now at the mercy of who had caught me. The druid had definitely won. She muttered in a language I didn't understand completely...living in a druid's city I had learned druid curse words, though. There were quite a few in her harsh sentences.   
  
The druid grabbed me by my wrists, pulled me to my feet, and started forcing me towards a path between the trees. She was incredibly strong for her size, and I felt the roots around my wrists rubbing the skin raw. I stumbled almost immediately, and she was then dragging me behind her. I heard my worn-out shirt rip down the back, and wriggled to try to get my hands free. But the roots just dug deeper and the sun blazed into my eyes...I stopped trying to move when I got a headache and just waited.  
  
I was pulled through a gate of vines that looked like the one I had passed on my way around the wall. May have been the same one, I wasn't sure. I just knew that my wrists hurt and my hands were going numb...if anything was permanently damaged, I'd kill the tree hugger. Somehow.  
  
"I caught a thief," she reported to everyone in the general vicinity, "who was stealing stones from the pool."  
  
Everyone turned to stare. She had stopped, so I struggled to my feet, glaring at everyone who'd meet my eyes.  
  
"Why would I try to steal rocks?" I asked. "I'm honestly not that stupid. Water from the druids, maybe. But why rocks? We're living on a mountain." 


End file.
